Motor Racing: The Pursuit of Victory 1930-1962

This book is a virtual time machine to the past. It presents stunning photographs from motor racing history, most previously unpublished, and examines the many facets of Grand Prix racing before the dominance of television and commercial advertising. Here are stories of derring-do and racing that constantly pushed the boundaries of technology. The story begins in the 1930s when the German Auto Unions and Mercedes were heavily subsidised by the Nazi regime to strengthen its engineering might. This produced the most powerful racing cars ever (at least until the turbocharged cars of the 1980s), and was followed by the postwar era that saw the BRM V16 bringing prestige to Great Britain, before the rear-engined revolution in Formula 1.

Anthony Carter began writing about motor racing, and Grand Prix racing in particular, after he retired from a career in the insurance industry in London. He has followed the sport since childhood, taking many photographs as a young man that were eventually published in his book Motor Racing – Reflections of a Lost Era (Veloce 2005, revised and reprinted 2007). Anthony built up an intimate knowledge of the sport and its personalities at a time when they were more accessible to enthusiasts. Access to the paddock was always possible, and it has been Anthony’s privilege to draw upon the experiences of the numerous personalities he came to know all those years ago as source material for this book.